Boot stand

ABSTRACT

A boot stand comprising a base with a centrally disposed upright rising vertically therefrom and dividing the base into two equal areas, each one supporting the sole of a boot. Novel bootclamping means is adjustable vertically on the upright and is designed to clamp the tops of the legging portions of the boots against the adjacent surface of the upright so as to support the boot leggings in an upright position regardless of their length.

United States Patent 1191 Kulik [451 July 24, 1973 800T STAND [76] Inventor: John Kulik, 1420 W. Winton Ave.,

Hayward, Calif. 94545 [22] Filed: Mar. 6,1972

[21] Appl. No; 231,939

[52] US. Cl 211/37, 248/125, 223/120 [51] Int. CL. A47t 7/08 [58] Field of Search ..223/113,114,115, 223/116,l17,118,120;248/122,125;

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 6/1860 Wheeler 223/113 711952 Oblusteel 9/1900 Kennedy 211/37 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 7,577 10/1879 Germany 223/113 Primary Examiner-George H. Krizmanich Attorney-William R. Piper [57] ABSTRACT A boot stand comprising a base with a centrally disposed upright rising vertically therefrom and dividing the base into two equal areas, each one supporting the sole of a boot. Novel boot-clamping means is adjustable vertically on the upright and is designed to clamp the tops of the legging portions of the boots against the adjacent surface of the upright so as to support the boot leggings in an upright position regardless of their length.

4 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures PATENIEUJULMIBH 1. Field of the Invention When boots are stored in a closet, there is nothing to support the legging portion of the boot in an upright position. The result is that the legging portions of the boots will fold over to one side of the boot and they will present a sloppy or untidy appearance and take up too much space. Also, cracks may appear in that portion of the legging which is kept in a bent or folded position. Boots have legging portions of different lengths and one of the novel features of my invention is to provide a boot stand that has a central upright on which adjustable boot-clamping means is slidably mounted that can grip the tops of the boot leggings and hold them in an upright position regardless of their length.

2. Description of the Prior Art The patent to David Oblusteel, U.S. Pat. No.

2,603,393, issued July 15, 1952, is for a boot jack in SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of my invention is to provide a boot stand that has a base which rests on a supporting surface and the base has a large enough area to support a pair of boots. An upright extends vertically from the base and the two boots are placed one on each side of the up right so that the legging portions of the two boots will contact the upright.- A pair of clamping members are slidably mounted on the upright and are designed to grip the tops of the legging portions of the boots and clamp them against the upright for holding the leggings in an upright position. Since the clamping members are adjustable vertically along the upright, they can be made to grip the tops of the boot leggings regardless of the lengths of these leggings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a side elevation of the boot stand with a portion of the base being shown in section to illustrate how the centrally disposed upright is secured to the base.

FIG. 2 is a front elevation of the boot stand with a portion being shown in section for clarity.

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the boot stand.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged partially sectional view of the circled portion 4 in FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is a horizontal section through the boot clamping mechanism and it is taken along the line 5-5 of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged horizontal section taken along the line 6-6 of FIG. 1 and illustrates the connection between the upright and base.

FIG. 7 is a longitudinal section taken along the line 7-7 of FIG. 6 and shows the tongue-shaped lower end of the upright received in the slot in the base preparatory for the upright and tongue being moved into a locked position on the base.

FIG. 8 is a view similar to FIG. 7, but showing the upright and tongue moved into a locked position with respect to the base.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In carrying out my invention, I provide a base indicated generally at A and being shaped to receive a pair of boots B, shown by dot-dash lines in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3. The base is preferably made from plastic and it has a downwardly extending flange that extends around the entire perimeter of the base. FIG. 6 shows an enlarged plan view of the base A and it is provided with an opening 1 that has downwardly extending flanges 2 and 3 that are aligned with the two sides of the opening and a transversely extending flange 4 that interconnects the side flanges to form a U-shaped socket.

A centrally disposed upright, indicated generally at C, has an integral hook-shaped portion 5 at its lower end that has a width designed to be snugly received in the socket formed by the flanges 2, 3 and 4. The up right C has an enlarged portion 6 disposed just above the hook-shaped portion 5 and the enlarged portion forms a shoulder that contacts the upper surface of the base A when the portion 5 is received in the socket formed by the flanges 2, 3 and 4. FIG. 7 illustrates the opening 1 in the base A, being large enough to receive the hook-shaped portion 5 and FIG. 8 shows how the upright can be secured in place on the base A, when the upright is moved to the right from its position shown in FIG. 7, into that shown in FIG. 8 where the hookshaped portion has its forward end 5a moved under the adjacent portion of the base A. This structure of the hook-shaped end 5 is given by way of one example of how to removably connect the upright C to the base A without the use of tools.

The upright C is positioned between the two boots B and I provide novel means for clamping the tops of the boots to the upright for preventing the legging portions of the boots from collapsing. Also, the novel boot clamping means is adjustably mounted on the upright so that the clamping means performs two functions. One function is to clamp the boot tops to the upright and the other function is to permit vertical adjustment of the clamping means along the upright so that boots with legging portions of various lengths can be gripped by the clamping means and held in an upright position. In FIGS. 1 to 5 inclusive I show the boot clamping means as comprising two members of identical construction. FIGS. 1, 4 and 5 show the upright C provided with a vertical slot 7 and the top of the upright is shaped into a handle 8 by means of which the entire device may be lifted.

The adjustable boot clamp consists of two identical clamping members D and E, as shown in FIGS. I to 5 inclusive. I will describe the clamping member D in detail and like reference numerals to similar portions will be applied to the clamping member E, except that they will be primed. The clamping member D has a boxshaped portion with parallel and spaced apart side walls 10 and 11, and an end wall 12 that extends between the side walls and is integral therewith, see FIG. 5. In FIG. 4, the end wall 12 of the member D and the end wall 12' of the member E are shown in section and it should be noted that the height of these end walls is less than the height of the side walls 10 and 11. Also, when comparing FIGS. 4 and 5, it will be seen that substantially one-half of the width of the end wall 12 has a transversely extending rib 13 that is semi-cylindrical in cross section whose axis lies in the plane of the outer surface of the end wall 12. Substantially, the remaining onehalf of the width of the end wall 12 has a transversely extending groove 14 that is semi-cylindrical in cross section whose axis is in alignment with the axis for the rib 13 and the radius for the rib equals the radius for the groove 14. The result is that when the two box-like portions of the clamping members D and E are inserted into the slot 7 of the upright C, the rib 13 on the member D, will be received in the groove 14 in the member E and the rib 13 on the member E will be received in the groove 14 of the member D. In order to prevent the two members D and E from moving laterally with respect to each other, I provide the member D with a wing end thrust 9, see FIG. 5, that abuts the outer end of the rib 13 and I provide the member E with a wing end thrust 9' that abuts the outer end of the rib 13 on the member D. These two wing ends 9 and 9' are semicircular in cross section and have the same radius as the ribs 13 and 13', respectively. Also, these wing ends 9 and 9 are received in similarly shaped recesses in the opposing members.

It will be further noted from FIG. 4 that the portions of the side wall 10 and 11 that extend above the common axis for the rib l3 and groove 14, are cut on an incline and likewise the portions of the side walls 10' and 11' that extend above the same common axis for the rib 13' and groove 14' are cut on an incline 15'. A split ring-shaped spring F is mounted so that its ends are received in the box-like portions of the clamping members D and E and the spring ends will yieldingly bear against the end walls 12 and 12' of the members D and E. FIG. 4 shows the end wall 12 of the member D and the end wall 12 of the member E provided with a rib-like portion that is positioned just above where the ends of the split ring spring F contact with these end walls 12 and 12'. This will prevent the accidental freeing of the spring F from the two members D and E. FIGS. 1 to 3 inclusive show the clamping members D and E provided with integral hand grip portions 16 and 16, respectively, that extend above the box-like portions and are inclined away from the adjacent faces of the upright C. The clamping members D and E are also provided with integral and downwardly extending bootgripping portions 17 and 17', respectively. The portions 17 and 17' are arcuate in shape in horizontal cross section, as shown in FIG. 5, and when they are not gripping the tops of the boots, as shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, the split ring spring F will cause them to yieldingly contact with the opposite sides of the upright C in order to hold the clamping members D and E in their adjusted position. The split ring spring F is the only means used for holding the two clamping members D and E in a hinged connection with each other. The inclined edges 15 and 15' on the members D and E permit the hand grip portions 16 and 16' to be manually moved toward each other for freeing the clamping portions 17 and 17' from either gripping the tops of the boots B or from gripping the opposite sides of the upright C. It is possible to move the clamping members D and E either upwardly or downwardly along the slot 7 in the upright C when the boot-gripping portions 17 and 17' are swung into released position.

I provide means for maintaining the pivotal center of the interconnected clamping members D and E, equidistant from the opposite faces of the upright C, and this means comprises projections 20 and 21 on the outer surfaces of the sides 10 and 11, respectively, and integral with the member D, see FIG. 5. The means also comprises projections 20' and 21' on the outer surfaces of the sides 10' and 11', respectively, and integral with the member E. The inner ends of these projections 20 and 21 and 20' and 21 are spaced only a slight distance away from the adjacent surfaces of the upright C, and they will keep the pivotal axis of the two members D and E within the area of the slot 7 in the upright C.

FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 show the boots B being supported by the base A and further show the tops of the boots held in an upright position by the boot-clamping members D and E. I also provide a plastic cover G, in FIGS. 1 and 2, that covers the boots B, and has an opening 18 in its top for receiving the handle 8 of the upright C.

It will be seen from FIGS. 1 and 3, that the upper surface of the base A is provided with transversely extending integral ribs 18-18 that aid in positioning the boots in the correct places on the base. The ribs will be positioned just in front of the heel of the boot. Also, in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, I show the base A provided with a pair of base standoffs at the front of the base and comprise ribs 2222 that are integral with the downwardly extending front portion of the base flange and space the lower edge of the flange a slight distance above the supporting surface for the device. In like manner I show the base A provided with an additional pair of base standoffs 2323 disposed at the opposite sides of the base and another pair of base standoffs 2424 disposed at the rear of the base. All of these standoffs are integral with the downwardly extending flange for the base and support the lower edge of the base flange above the supporting surface of the device.

I claim:

1. A boot stand comprising:

a. a base for supporting a pair of boots;

b. an upright connected to the base and extending vertically thereabove, said upright being positioned centrally of the base and adapted to extend between the inner sides of the legging portions of a pair of boots; and

c. vertically adjustable boot clamping means movable along said upright and yieldingly clamping the upright for engaging the tops of the boot leggings to the adjacent surfaces of said upright thereby holding the boot leggings in an upright position.

2. The combination as set forth in claim 1: and in which a. said upright has an elongated vertically extending slot;

b. said adjustable boot clamping means including:

0. two identical members having portions slidably received in said slot, said portions being 'pivotally connected together; 1

d. each member having an upwardly extending hand grip portion and a downwardly extending boot clamping portion; and

e. a split ring spring having its ends yieldingly engaging with said members for rocking said members about their pivotal connection for urging said boot clamping portions toward opposite surfaces of said upright and being adapted to engage with the tops of the boot leggings for adjustably clamping these legging tops to the upright for holding the leggings in an upright position.

3. The combination as set forth in claim 2: and in which a. the portions of the two identical members that are slidably received in said slot having side walls that slidably contact with the adjacent edges of said slot; and

b. projections integral with said side walls and having their inner ends spaced a slight distance from the adjacent surface of said upright;

c. whereby said projections will maintain the portions of the identical members that are slidably received in said slot, within said slot while permitting pivotal movement between said members and also permitting the vertical movement of said members as a circular in cross section, being pivotally received in j a complementary and transversely extending groove in the other member, said split ring spring yieldingly holding the ribs in their complementary grooves. 

1. A boot stand comprising: a. a base for supporting a pair of boots; b. an upright connected to the base and extending vertically thereabove, said upright being positioned centrally of the base and adapted to extend between the inner sides of the legging portions of a pair of boots; and c. vertically adjustable boot clamping means movable along said upright and yieldingly clamping the upright for engaging the tops of the boot leggings to the adjacent surfaces of said upright thereby holding the boot leggings in an upright position.
 2. The combination as set forth in claim 1: and in which a. said upright has an elongated vertically extending slot; b. said adjustable boot clamping means including: c. two identical members having portions slidably received in said slot, said portions being pivotally connected together; d. each member having an upwardly extending hand grip portion and a downwardly extending boot clamping portion; and e. a split ring spring having its ends yieldingly engaging with said members for rocking said members about their pivotal connection for urging said boot clamping portions toward opposite surfaces of said upright and being adapted to engage with the tops of the boot leggings for adjustably clamping these legging tops to the upright for holding the leggings in an upright position.
 3. The combination as set forth in claim 2: and in which a. the portions of the two identical members that are slidably received in said slot having side walls that slidably contact with the adjacent edges of said slot; and b. projections integral with said side walls and having their inner ends spaced a slight distance from the adjacent surface of said upright; c. whereby said projections will maintain the portions of the identical members that are slidably received in said slot, within said slot while permitting pivotal movement between said members and also permitting the vertical movement of said members as a unit within said slot.
 4. The combination as set forth in claim 2: and in which a. the portions of said two identical members that are slidably received in said slot, having their pivotal connection between each other formed by a transversely extending rib on one member and semi-circular in cross section, being pivotally received in a complementary and transversely extending groove in the other member, said split ring spring yieldingly holding the ribs in their complementary grooves. 